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Hayaikawa just made a post in the Scritching thread that made me think of this.

Okay, so you know how when most people talk to animals, they adopt a higher-pitched, baby-talk-type voice and generally make fools out of themselves? (I know there's a psychological reason behind this, but I forget what it is.)

Out of curiosity, do you guys use baby-talk with your pets? Or do you talk to them more like people?

[NOT]

I rarely talk to any animals in baby-talk. I find it's much easier to communicate if I talk to them as if they understand everything I say, because they usually do.

lol, I never baby talk.

 I either talk normally or just make animal noises back at them.

I talk to mine like they're just another person.

Call this the Vulpes Corollary, if you will:

Intelligence of speech when directed to an animal is related to three inter-mingled factors. These are, in relative order of importance, cuteness, size, and receptivity to affection. Cuteness is somewhat a function of size, which explains why people just melt at the sight of kittens and generally don't at the sight of full-grown labradors. Of course, the particular animal and how they respond to your ministrations will also play a factor, since one isn't likely to talk like a baby to a cat full of vinegar who scratches everyone that he doesn't know.

With all this in mind, you'd best believe that I talk as to a baby when I talk to my kitty. She's cute, very small for her age, and would stretch out on the floor and say "pet me!" if robbers came in the house.

Or maybe I just get that way around all cats, since this babying only seems to apply to members of the feline species. Maybe I learned it from my grandmother. Iuonno.

I talk to my dogs and cats just like they were people. I will admit I often end up speaking different to my mouse though. 

Oh, wow.  Uh... depending on the animal, I'll use baby-talk.  Rarely to dogs, but somewhat frequently to cats.  Other animals don't seem to stick around long enough for me to talk to.

Then again, I rarely use baby-talk with babies.  I think it's more amusing to talk normally and think about how ridiculous it looks.  Yeah... I know, it's weird. 

Eh, i talk to them the way I talk to everyone else. Including sometimes trying to start a conversation...somehow...

I talk to my mate's cats as if they're human, and they talk to me as if I'm a cat.

HAHAHAHAHA!

Hahaha, well done, Landrav. I have actually said that to cats in the past. And Mr. Vulpes, I like your corollary.

As for me, I suppose I do the baby-talk thing a little bit... I definitely use a higher-pitched voice when I talk to animals. I don't, like, coo and fawn over them like a moron, but neither do I attempt to engage them in abstruse philosophical discussions, lol. I'm aware that my pets will never see me as more than a large thing that feeds them, scritches them, and occasionally makes odd noises from its mouth.

Landrav beat me too it. It's scary how accurate that comic is, I talk in strange ways to my cats. Though interestingly enough, I speak normally to my snake. Not sure why exactly, I just do. As to whether or not they have any idea what I'm saying... well, OK, they probably don't. But that doesn't stop me from doing it

Wow, Landrav managed to find a picture expressing my garglemesh of words in a simple chart. Why didn't I think of that? What is that graphic from?

Wow, Landrav managed to find a picture expressing my garglemesh of words in a simple chart. Why didn't I think of that? What is that graphic from?

http://xkcd.com/231/! Use caution, please, as a large number of the strips are not family-friendly. ^.^; That's one of the ones I remember from the time that I tried to read it. (The tooltip over the original comic reads "Yes you are! And you're sitting there! Hi, kitty!")

And I talk strangely to everyone if they'll let me get away with it ... usually, though, I have to speak like a "normal human being," which takes me a little while to translate. >.>

Oh, oh, OH. That webcomic. I had quite forgotten it.

I notice that most people in this thread seem to say that they only seem to use baby talk to felines. Perhaps there is some subtle psychological reason why we tend to speak insanely to felines above other species?

I would never degrade ANY animal with use of baby-talk, especially to my own pet. It's like people dumbing down their speech for you, stupid people would be cool wit it, but I would be offended and I think thats how animals feel, either that or pissed.

[Go click my Pokemon!]

I speak normally to my pets, usually. "Hello, kitty. You are a cat. Hello. Come here, kitty." Something along those lines. Of course, it's been a while since I've had a pet... although I'm looking forwards to getting my pet rabbit this summer. So we'll have to see how I'll speak with Biscuit.

<3 xkcd

Whether I "baby talk" is totally dependent on the individual animal, but cats always make me haz teh dumb.

The only animals I regularly have contact with are birds of prey. I do not baby talk them.

I for one don't,
i have couple of reasons for this,
1: i think it's patronising towards the animal
2: i think it's an annoying tone of voice
3: i don't see how it can help people communicate to animals
And 4: it can be very very embarrising for the individual to talk like tht (and for the animal to be talked to like tht)

I'll do it to dogs sometimes. I've never thought about it being patronizing or degrading; I doubt the dog cares about any of that, anyways.

Oh, and for the record, my older sister talks to me this way sometimes, too.

God I hate it! Every day I go out to feed my dog and Im like"Not gonna talk weird not gonna talk weird, just gonna try to sound normal since my neighbors are usually out there." But as soon as I see my dog, her cuteness just overwhelms all conscious thought and before I know it" Who's a good girl? Huh?!! Who's a pretty doggie!" comes out.

Ahahaha, poor Shaku. I know the feeling well. I don't mean to always be talking to cats about how they are fuzzy-wuzzy cats, IT JUST HAPPENS.

The only words my dogs hear are 'no' and 'get out of there'.